Survival Of The Fittest

((Katie Agustien continued from Monachopsis))

Katie was heavily out of her element right now.

She tugged at the sleeve of her shirt as she stood in the foyer, unsure of where exactly to put her hands, standing awkwardly to the side as people milled around her, making their way out of the building. It wasn’t her normal attire, not the usual hoody and tank top with sweatpants or shorts and trainers. She wasn’t sure what you were supposed to wear to a dance recital, but she’d figured it’d be nice to make an effort, so she’d dug out a nice clean button-up, and a fresh pair of jeans, and, well… some trainers, because she didn’t own any other shoes. She still looked good in it, though, and she’d felt good at the time of putting it all on.

But now she had to play the waiting game, and, surrounded by people who didn’t even have to think about what to wear before they went to a dance recital or the theatre or anything else in that sorta area, she was feeling very out of place. Her shirt suddenly felt too small, her trainers too noticeable. Somehow, she felt both underdressed and overdressed at once.

A middle-aged woman glanced at Katie, and she scowled at her, watching her hurriedly scurry away, before letting out a sigh.

“C’mon, Saffron…”

She was excited above all of it, excited and impatient to see Saffron again and gush to her about just how good that performance had been, because, man. Katie didn’t know much about dancing, but she knew that Saffron had totally aced it. She’d been utterly mesmorising. Katie couldn’t keep her eyes off of her on most occasions, but this had been something really, really special.

She tapped her foot subconsciously as she waited for Saffron to reappear, but a smile had started to shift onto her face anyway. She’d been nervous about this whole thing, like she always was whenever she started talking to a girl she really liked, but as far as she could tell, it had gone really really well so far, and, hopefully, whenever Saffron had finished getting changed or whatever, they could spend some more time together.

Katie realised there was a warm tinge in her cheeks, and she focused her attention on the suddenly very interesting wall.

(Saffron Fields continued from Dance of Discipline)

All the time that Saffron had spent since her performance had involved a combination of the following: A chair, a fan, and a bottle of water. One of her favorite parts of working up a sweat was always cooling down afterwards, and doing so after having just danced her heart out onstage for an audience made the whole experience even sweeter.

The music had felt like a perfect choice, and even though she had planned all of her moves out beforehand, she felt as though she had simply been swaying along to the beat, and letting the rhythm guide her every step of the way. It just felt like everything had clicked together perfectly, and she hadn't felt this satisfied about one of her routines in a good while.

By the time the final dancer's performance had come and gone, Saffron's cooling-off process had paid off handsomely. She removed herself from the spot that she had claimed for the past twenty minutes and grabbed her jacket and pants. After a few minutes spent changing, she left the dressing room to meet a certain someone special.

There was a crowd gathered outside of the dressing rooms, as per usual. Mostly family members of the dancers coming to congratulate them on their routines. But through the crowd, she simply couldn't miss the form of the girl whom she had invited through a very formal text message.

"Katie!" She called out as she made her approach, making sure to alert the other girl to her presence. "How did you like the recital?"

Katie had been trying, over the past year or two, to keep her emotions in check, no matter the situation. She had an anger problem and she knew it, and the worst part was that everybody else at school knew it too. Combine that with the fact that the only hobby of hers that the school at large knew about was boxing, and people generally just knew her as ‘the chick that punches people when she gets mad’.

Shockingly, she wasn’t hugely keen on that tag.

So she did her best not to let anything get to her, any of the taunts or jibes or slurs flung at her in the corridor. Whether that was through her new technique of letting it wash over her or collecting and releasing the anger on her punching bag at home, or her old technique, the one that still kept spilling into the new, of bottling it all up and holding onto it for a later date, she tried to pride herself on not letting her emotions show.

Of course, this also meant that when things excited or interested her, it was real hard for people around her to actually tell that, but she considered that a fair price to pay. It was all a healing process, and within time, maybe she’d feel comfortable enough in letting her emotions show, no matter what they were. As it stood, she much preferred being known as stoic and vaguely intimidating than ‘Punch Girl’, and definitely intimidating.

But as soon as she heard her name being called, and saw Saffron making her way through the throng, her eyes lit up, and her heart started bouncing around her chest, and there was an almost instantaneous smile on her face.

“Saffron!” she said, voice excited and much louder than she’d planned for it to be, as she moved towards the other girl.

So much for that stoic pride.

“Oh my God, it was so good, Saffron! It was just, like, stunning, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. You were just…wow…”

She could feel that warm tinge again as she smiled at Saffron.

“You looked wonderful.”

Saffron found herself grinning ear to ear when Katie started talking about the recital. Seeing Katie just light up when she talked about it really sparked a happy feeling inside of her. She liked seeing Katie this happy, especially when she knew that she had a part in causing that happiness. Giving positivity to get positivity, one of the laws of the universe.

For her part, Saffron tried to stay cool and calm, like the distinguished dancer that she aimed to be. The keyword here being tried, because she did not maintain that air of coolness at all. She felt a swelling of pride in her chest, and gave Katie a proud smile the entire time that she talked about the recital, especially when Katie mentioned her specifically. The tiniest blush found its way to her face as she readily accepted the praise.

"Aw, Katie..." She said semi-bashfully. She usually wasn't so modest about her performances, but something about Katie just had that effect on her. She adjusted the back of her collar and gave the boxer a glance. Even though she had just given one of her biggest performances yet, she felt as though her night was only just beginning.

"So you really liked it that much?" She asked curiously. "I'm glad that I gave you something worth watching."

Was it too early to hold Saffron’s hand?

A couple of seconds of mental calculation and decision making told Katie that yes, yes it was definitely too fucking early to hold the other girl’s hand. They weren’t even dating yet; hell, she wasn’t even certain that this was a date full stop. Trying to hold Saffron’s hand at this point would be getting way, way too far ahead of herself. She just needed to wait and be patient.

At least until she had some actual confirmation that this was a date.

Her hand really was within touching distance now, though…

It took Katie a couple of embarrassingly long seconds to realise that she was shaking, a mix of nervousness and excitement flooding through her. The warm tinge in her cheeks turned into a scorching hot one, and she tried to focus and calm herself down, looking at Saffron and giving them a sheepish grin, casting her gaze away from their hand.

… Hmmm. Looking at her face wasn’t helping matters in the slightest.

“H-Hell yeah I did!” Katie said, trying to ignore and press on past her very conspicuous voice cracking. “I don’t know too much about dance terminology and all that, but I didn’t need any of that to know I was watching something really special! I… uh…”

Katie faltered slightly, blinking as she looked at Saffron. Was… was she flirting with her again? Katie was… she was pretty sure Saffron was flirting with her again! Well! Katie could most certainly dish it out as well as she could take it!

Probably!

“Like I said! I had my eyes fixed on you the whole time.”

She gave Saffron a lopsided, slightly nervous grin.

Saffron tilted her head to the side, letting her hair sway along with it. Yep, Katie was definitely cute right now, and she also might have been trying to flirt. But whether she was or wasn't, Saffron was enjoying it either way.

She thought that she would give Katie a little helping hand to make her more comfortable, in a very literal sense. She stepped a little closer and put her hand on the other girl's shoulder, hoping to make her feel more comfortable. She had been shaking a lot, so she was either nervous or very cold. Either way, she figured that she could help to some degree.

"I really appreciate you coming out here, even though you don't know dance." She said, leaning forward slightly. "It really does mean a lot to me to have your support."

Saffron was definitely starting to feel all tingly inside, and her mind and mouth pressed forward. "Do you want to go somewhere? Maybe get something to eat or hang out for a while?"

Sometimes, it was best to just let your instincts guide you and tell you what to do. This was definitely not one of those moments, because Katie’s instincts upon feeling Saffron rest her hand on her shoulder and seeing her tilt her head and smile and watching the way her hair flowed and swayed as she did so were to melt down into a puddle with a sort of ‘Fbfhbhfb’ sound.

Fortunately, she was just about able to restrain and temper that urge into merely blushing bright scarlet, taking a shuffled step closer to the other girl in the process. It felt good, the steadying, gentle hand on her shoulder; she’d stopped shaking almost instantly. It felt warm, and it felt right, like this was exactly where they were both supposed to be, where they both belonged.

God, she had it really bad, didn’t she?

“It was awesome, Saffron,” she said, smiling broadly, worrying for a moment that it was too big and overly excited but quickly deciding that she didn’t care, and that now, now was the time for her instincts to guide her. “I’d love to come and watch you perform again, d’you know when your next recital thing is? Oh, and that offer to come and watch me work out is always on the table!”

Now that she’d started talking, Katie could barely stop herself, beaming excitedly as she did so. She wasn’t used to this. She wasn’t used to this one bit. The only thing that kept her interest for more than an hour or so nowadays was boxing, but this was exciting and nervewracking and something new, and the only place she wanted to be right now. She’d somehow gotten even closer to Saffron, and she could feel her heart going crazy in her chest, as she excitedly pressed on.

“Anyways, uh, there’s a couple of nice places to eat around here, my brother’s taken me to a bunch of ‘em after matches and stuff. You got any preferences? I’d love to go wherever you wanna go.”

Katie let out a cheerful little laugh and smiled at Saffron. She caught a glimpse of her hazel coloured eyes again, and, once again, just about resisted the urge to melt down into a pool of flustered jello.

Saffron twirled her finger around her ponytail while Katie talked to her. Katie's face was reddening a lot, and Saffron's own was racing to match it. She didn't try to hide it though, she liked it. And Katie wanting to see her again? She liked that too. She really liked that.

"I'll let you know when I find out about my next recital, okay?" She lightly squeezed Katie's shoulder in a playful way. "And next time you're working out, give me a call. I'd love to come with you." If she were to say that thinking about Katie in the gym wasn't slightly distracting at the moment, that would be a blatant lie, but she managed to keep her cool. She responded to Katie moving closer by adjusting her own position, her arm curling around to reach just behind Katie's shoulders. Not quite a hug, but certainly close.

"You know, there's this really good Indian place nearby that's open late. Really great food, too." She extends her offer hopefully. "Want to join me? I'd love to hang out more."

“I, uh, you, uh… guh, um, buh… yeah!”

She’d meant to say something much less… whatever the fuck that was, something actually relevant to the conversation at hand. But then Saffron had slipped her arm around Katie’s shoulders, and that had all gone out the window, as all the wires in her brain crossed over and she stuttered and stumbled and blushed her way through something that could barely qualify as a sentence.

It was weird and it was new and Katie felt even more out of her element than she had when she’d first arrived here, but you know what? She didn’t mind one bit.

Her smile grew even more as she gazed at Saffron, and she wondered exactly what everyone at school would think if they saw her now. She was pretty infamous for being hard to approach and intimidating, she knew that, and that was the nice way of putting it. An ‘aggressive psycho bitch’, that was another one that had been thrown her way a few times over the years.

And now, here she was, a completely flustered mess, just because the girl she had a massive crush on had put her arm around her shoulders.

It felt good, honestly. She didn’t need to worry about keeping her emotions in check around Saffron, or to maintain that quiet, stoic front so that people’s words wouldn’t get to her. She could be an open book around her, and she could showcase a different side of her, and that felt good. Comfortably vulnerable. That’s how it felt.

“I mean, uh, yeah, that sounds good! Real good! I think I know the place you’re talking about, but Marlon doesn’t like Indian so we never went. But I’d love to spend some time with you there!”

Katie laughed again, gently playing with a strand of her hair. She still wasn’t sure what to do with her hands.

"All right. You're gonna love it, I promise."

Saffron used her arm that was already around Katie to give the other girl a hug from the side. Saffron was no stranger to physical affection. In fact, she liked it quite a lot. She never liked to leave her friends without a hug at the very least, and Katie had definitely entered that department so far. Although to be completely honest, Saffron was having some other thoughts about how she really felt about the boxer, thoughts that she hoped she would be able to talk out with her over the course of the night.

"It'll be fun. We'll get samosas, and dip some naan in hummus. You're gonna have a few new favorite foods tonight, I promise." She lightly stroked Katie's shoulder. Saffron had blown straight past being simply affectionate and was now outright flirting, and she felt more than comfortable about it. She liked Katie, and she hoped that Katie was feeling the same way about her.

"Do you have a car, or do you need a ride?"